The likes of George W., Karl Rove, Meg Whitman and Lawrence Lindsey will convene at the Bush Institute this p.m. for a confab on ways to achieve 4 percent GDP growth. Tomorrow four Nobel laureates in economics plus Art Laffer will join in. If you’re interested, I’ll be tweeting the get-together here. At least until Wick or Tim ask me to quit writing so much about “Republican stuff.”
First there was the matter of the pole-dancing pictures on her Facebook page. Now Uncle Barky alerts us to the fact that NBC Channel 5 reporter and anchor Kim Fischer is making Down syndrome jokes on her Twitter feed. I demand outrage! And I demand it now! (In all seriousness, Fischer should know better.)
I took some guff from commenters when I wondered whether the Rangers could go undefeated this season. Okay, fine. As it turns out, they will not go undefeated this season. But it’s time to confront the fact that the team has a distinct outside chance of going 161-1 this season. Think about it. Just a few years ago, Alexi Ogando was trafficking in humans. Until this year, he’d never even started a game as a pitcher. Now his ERA is 0.00. ERAs don’t get much lower than that. If Ogando doesn’t allow a run this season, that 161-1 record suddenly looks very achievable.
Yesterday, Jason posted an item about DART ditching part of one South Dallas route over safety concerns. But the release from DART didn’t say exactly why there was concern for safety. It said only: “The detour is prompted by safety concerns for bus operators and passengers and will remain in effect until further notice.” So I asked DART spokesman Morgan Lyons what was going on. His response:
“In the past year we’ve had about 30 incidents where people have thrown rocks, bricks, etc. at the bus. We’ve had operators hurt by those objects or glass broken by the thrown objects. It’s a portion of the route and it happens after dark. We did the same thing on a route a few years ago. We have previously suspended service to a charter school because of safety problems caused by the students as the rode the bus.”
SMDH.
Mavs Down Rockets in Overtime. Read Jonathan Feigen’s column about his team’s loss in the Houston Chronicle. It’s hard to imagine a more generous, understanding assessment of a team that failed to make the playoffs.
Ron Kirk Endorses Mike Rawlings. The most boring mayoral race in forever rolls on. According to Gromer Jeffers (sub req), Kirk, who is the U.S. trade representative for Obama, said “he was making the endorsement as a Dallas resident, not as a public figure.” Similarly, today I plan to make passionate love to a passel of Swedish lingerie models, but I’ll be doing it as a Dallas resident, not as a husband and father.
Man Walks for TV Cameras. Our Urban Affairs columnist, Patrick Kennedy, was interviewed on Channel 33 last night for a story about whether it’s possible, given the high gas prices, to live in Dallas without a car. If you want to see some sweet B-roll footage of Patrick walking, check it out.
Arlington Marine Killed by Friendly Fire. From the Los Angeles Times: “In what appeared to be the first case of U.S. troops being hit by ‘friendly fire’ from a drone aircraft, two American servicemen were killed by a Hellfire missile after apparently being mistaken for insurgents moving to attack another group of Marines in southern Afghanistan.” One of the casualties was Marine Staff Sgt. Jeremy D. Smith of Arlington.